For those who read my stories, I like to update at least once a week. Due to holidays I may not be able to update for two(ish) weeks, but I will be back! For now here's a shorter chapter, happy Thanksgiving!
*****
Oliver twisted, cracking his spine in the black chair in front of his desk. He cursed himself for being so dumb as to accidentally sleep on the floor all night. His schedule was not set like AJ's. He was on-call every single day. Lucky for her she gets a whole day off from being tortured.
He grumbled, leaning back and trying to focus on the little bit of mindless paperwork he had been pushing off for so long. He reached into his coat pocket, taking out the envelope that had been left on AJ's clothes at the mansion.
Inside was a check written for sixty thousand dollars and a note with Crystals feminine handwriting that read, 'We hope to see you soon!'
Oliver crumbled the note and the check in his fist. "Fucking bitch."
Meanwhile, AJ was enjoying her glorious day of being uncaged from her sadistic captor. After sprinting out of Oliver's apartment building, she cleared her mind of everything involving him. It was a day to pretend everything was normal. She could be invisible again, even if just temporarily.
The majority of the day was spent back at the local bookstore. It was on the second story of a massive building, the windows reached from floor to ceiling, with little ledges so she could curl up and see the snow fall on the city streets while she read.
The book of the day was Ender's Shadow. She clutched a cup of hot coffee, snuggled in an oversized, yet very cozy sweater. As she flipped past the thin pages of the paperback copy, she felt a light tap on her shoulder. She lowered the book expecting it to be an employee, but because the universe was never on her side, it was Oliver.
"Ah!" she yelped, almost jumping off her seat. "What are you doing here? What did I do?" she asked in a panic.
Oliver held up a large hardcover book in his hands. "I ordered this like two weeks ago." He leaned down and snatched AJ's paperback in his hands, looking at it.
"Hey, give that back!" she hissed, trying to reach for it. He was like a schoolyard bully.
Oliver looked at the cover and smirked. "Orson Scott Card, huh? Getting prepared for space battles, are we?"
AJ's face turned a bright red, frustrated by his never-ending teasing. Oliver chuckled at her reaction and passed Ender's Shadow back to her. "What are your plans for Christmas?" he asked while she snatched the book from his hands.
"Um, I don't know," she answered. Christmas had been the farthest thing from her mind. Since her move to the city she had always spent it with Henry. She would buy him a fish from the market and take a tab of acid, watching the X-files Christmas haunted house episode on repeat until the sun came up. This year she had assumed it would be the same. Maybe if she lied and said she had plans he would leave her alone for the holiday.
"Alright good, you're spending it with me," he said, playfully tapping her head with the heavy hardcover book.
"But don't you have family or something?" After the words slipped out, she bit her tongue. Maybe she had gone too far asking that.
Oliver hesitated, putting the book under his arm. "I have work."
"Then why am I spending it with you?" she whined.
"Because I said so."
"Well, what if I do have plans?"
Oliver raised an eyebrow and leaned close to her ear, just barely whispering, "As much as I would love to fuck you between some bookshelves to make my point, I have to run. Your only plans are with me."
AJ jumped as he nipped her ear with his teeth playfully before rising. Oliver smiled, amused by her response. "Alright, see you at work tomorrow little bird," he said and left the bookstore with his book neatly tucked under his arm.
The blush on AJ's face stayed even after he left. She rubbed her ear where he had bitten her, completely taking her aback that he would do that. She mumbled to herself while trying to focus on Ender's Shadow again, but their interaction had thrown her off. After cursing quietly to herself for too long, she bought the book and brought it home. No need for any more accidental meetings with Oliver.
When she arrived home, she dropped her new book on the kitchen table and looked at her calendar. Christmas was just four days away, if counting today. But there was nothing she could do, so why waste this free time worrying?
The next day she woke up feeling completely refreshed for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. She sat at her desk, fiddling with her pencil and trying to get through a stack of paperwork Sauer had dumped on her.
She felt a small poke on her arm and turned to see Kevin in a grey suit, facing her in his swivel chair. "So did you have fun at the museum? I saw you there with Sauer and Oliver."
AJ realized she had been tapping the eraser of her pencil on the desk loudly. "Yes, I had fun. SUE was cool," she forced herself to say. Though she was telling the truth about SUE, it hurt not to scream about how insane it all was, what crazy diabolical things Oliver and Sauer do. Shout at the top of her lungs how much she hated the two sadists.
Then she wondered if he had been to Crystal's mansion. She had definitely seen some faces of fellow CIA employees, and a good portion of them she had seen at the museum. If Kevin was such good friends with Oliver than he had to be in on this whole satanic sex cult conspiracy.
"Hey trouble," Kevin said, peering past AJ. AJ didn't move, knowing who he was probably talking to behind her. She hoped if she didn't turn around Oliver wouldn't be there. Her deflector shields were useless against him, his weapon systems were too strong.
"Hey, you," said Oliver's familiar voice from behind her. When AJ didn't turn around, praying to every god she knew he would magically evaporate, he tapped her on the head with a thick folder. AJ reluctantly turned around and tried to put on a happy face, but Oliver could see right through her.
He smirked at her obvious dismay. "I got you coffee," he said, putting a hot paper cup on her desk, steam escaping the lid.
"Where's mine?" Kevin interrupted.
"You're not sick," Oliver replied, shuffling through his pants pocket.
AJ looked at him, her eyebrows raised in confusion. She wasn't sick. What was he talking about?
Kevin leaned back in his swivel chair, scooching away from AJ. "Oh shit, you're sick?"
Oliver pulled a little unlabeled bottle from his pocket and opened it, picking out a small pill. "Yeah, she was telling me all about how sick she felt this morning, so I thought I'd help make her feel better. Got some aspirin."
AJ cocked her head to the side and began to say, "I'm no-" but Oliver quickly cut her off by dropping the pill in her mouth mid-sentence. She almost spit it out, but Oliver's eyes were locked on her. She reluctantly swallowed, washing it down with a sip of the coffee and giving him a suspicious glare.
A smile creeped in the corner of Oliver's lips. "You should feel better in no time. Also take care of this," he said, dropping the thick folder on her desk.
AJ blushed, irritated and confused. She opened the folder and saw Oliver's sloppy handwriting directing her to make copies of this and that and drop this here and drop that there. She wasn't a fan of working for two people, but she began to notice Sauer had been asking her to do a lot less work than normal.
She went to the copy room, pushing the wobbly buttons and mumbling to herself while she waited for everything to be printed. It had only been twenty minutes since he gave her whatever that pill was, but she could feel a slight tingling sensation.
As it was obviously not aspirin at this point, she went through a list of drugs it could be. Molly? No, she wasn't grinding her teeth yet and her stomach felt fine. Acid? She was starting to see trails in her vision, but only so slight. But no matter how strong the acid is, it always takes at least a half hour before starting to come up. It couldn't be cocaine, that didn't cause trails and she would've felt it immediately.
As she continued to make copies, tediously organizing papers in the folder, the effects of the mystery drug were quickly taking its toll. If anyone on this earth could handle their drugs it was AJ. To an annoying extent, actually. But this was new unexplored territory. She tried to decipher the sensations, but no drug she had ever taken made her feel this way.
She broke it down in her mind, completely forgetting about her tedious work. She was seeing extremely faint trails, but enough to know there was some sort of hallucinogenic effect. Her body was getting warm, too warm. All of the feeling in her body started to collect in her lower stomach.
The drug seemed to be taking effect almost all physically. Her mind was completely aware, in fact her mental state was only slightly affected. She looked over to see the copies had finished, and probably a while ago.
She plopped at her desk, feeling the tingling in her stomach concentrate itself and move lower in her body. Her legs were tightly together, trying to reject the uncomfortable sensations.
When forty minutes had passed since she had taken the pill, the effects started becoming increasingly powerful. She adjusted herself in her chair and noticed it felt a bit damp. She wondered if she had spilled coffee or was sweating. She peeked around and when she was confident no one was looking, she reached under her desk and touched between her legs. Her insides turned into knots as she felt the scorching heat and slick juices coating her thighs.
She felt a hand touch her shoulder and whipped around, growling, "Back off, buddy!"
When she realized it was just Kevin, with a look of shock painted on his face, her stomach dropped. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean that, I'm just not feeling too good." Maybe she wasn't as mentally aware as she thought she was.
Kevin leaned back, still surprised by her aggressive outburst. "Well, don't get me sick. Your phone was ringing, and I picked up. Your boss wants you on the fourth floor."
"Damnit, he's not my boss!" She practically slapped herself, realizing how little control she actually had. She apparently had a lot more confidence than she previously believed, and the drug was keeping her from hiding it. And her lack of patience was clearly evident.
